How We Stay Free: Notes on a Black Uprising

By Common Notions

The national protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, made clear what many already knew to be true: policing—in all its iterations—must be abolished. The nationwide uprisings saw the burning of the third precinct in Minneapolis, the creation of autonomous zones in Seattle, and the toppling of statues and memorials to white supremacists, colonizers, and confederates. How We Stay Free chronicles the protests in the city of Philadelphia and the Black organizers that led, sustained, and nurtured the movement for abolition. 

In the midst of a global pandemic, Philadelphians took to the streets establishing mutual aid campaigns, jail support networks, bail funds, and housing encampments for their community, removing the statue of Frank Rizzo, the former mayor and face of racist policing, called for the release of all political prisoners including Mumia Abu-Jamal, and protested, marched, and agitated in all corners of the city. From Philadelphia, which dating back at least to W.E.B. DuBois has served as a vista to understand Black life in the US, How We Stay Free collects and presents reflections and testimonies, prose and poetry from those on the frontlines to take stock of where the movement started, where it stands, and where we go from here. 

How We Stay Free is both a celebration of the organizing that sustained the uprising and a powerful call-to-action—demanding all of us to take to the streets, organize our communities, and revolt for the creation of new, better, and freer worlds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Common Notions
• Release date: Feb 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781942173625

Book preview

Cover: How We Stay Free: Notes on a Black Uprising by Christopher R. Rogers, Fajr Muhammad, and the Paul Robeson House & Museum

"As a loud and proud West Philadelphian, I found this volume to be a visionary and genuinely inspiring approach to chronicling the momentous events of 2020. How We Stay Free, with its offering of poetry, history, context and practical organizing strategies is a book that so many of us didn’t even know that we needed. I am persuaded that the spirit of onetime West Philadelphia resident Paul Robeson moves through pages, which attest to Black identity as an infinite plurality and Black love as Black collective action."—Asali Solomon, author of The Days of Afrekete

"How We Stay Free is a foundational text and map that builds on the legacy of the Black Radical Tradition as localized in Black Philadelphia. Through this eloquent mix of poetry, prose, interviews, and archives of Philly’s Black Uprising, this text places our fight for justice that year within a much longer history and future of radical revolt. This is must read for community residents, activists, organizers to model ways that Philly has paired arts-based resistance work with organized protests and mobilization to build sustainable radical coalitions for freedom."—Dr. Christina Jackson, scholar-activist, community facilitator, and Associate Professor of Sociology at Stockton University

"Christopher Rogers and Fajr Muhammad have curated an urgent and timely collection. How We Stay Free documents how the 2020 Black uprising in Philadelphia sparked the political imagination. Produced in collaboration with the Paul Robeson House and Museum, it illuminates how Paul and Eslanda Robeson remain inspiring symbols of the radical social change so urgently needed today."—Jordan T. Camp, author of Incarcerating the Crisis: Freedom Struggles and the Rise of the Neoliberal State

"This powerful volume provides a maroon archive of Black resistance, historical memory, and survival work during the 2020 uprisings in Philadelphia. From the founding of the Philadelphia Black Radical Collective to the emergence of the Black Students Alliance in July 2020, the writings and spoken word in How We Stay Free remind us that, Freedom is not a destination. It’s a process.

By documenting Black Philadelphia’s activist praxis during the United States’ largest popular mobilization in history, this edited collection unearths the precious artifacts of local struggle through voice, material culture, poetry and prose. It connects past, present, and future by interweaving the histories of the Paul Robeson House and Museum and Hakim’s Bookstore in West Philadelphia to the contemporary practices of mutual aid and survival developed by the Black and Brown Workers Cooperative to ensure that Black Trans Lives Matter.

How We Stay Free is a rich tapestry of political work and freedom dreams that is essential reading for understanding our city and the larger world beyond as we reckon with the COVID-19 pandemic, the scale of state violence at home and abroad, and unprecedented ecological crisis. Underneath all we do, Mike Africa, Jr.’s reminds us that the overall mission, the grand mission itself must be to protect life.—Donna Murch, author of Living for the City: Migration, Education, and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California and Assata Taught Me: State Violence, Racial Capitalism and the Movement for Black Lives

"How We Stay Free is a living archive built by a community of freedom fighters. In its pages, readers walk the streets of West Philadelphia, stepping into Hakim’s Bookstore, marching up Broad St. with the Philly Black Student Alliance, sharing food at the Bunny Hop in Malcolm X Park, or sitting in the parlor at 4951 Walnut where Paul Robeson’s voice still thunders in the walls. This is poetic record of resistance from the 2020 uprisings. From the ashes of the MOVE bombing to the surviving nail where Frank Rizzo’s statue once stood, these are blueprints for a future being made in the present. A beautiful compendium of struggle."—Christina Heatherton, coeditor of Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter

HOW WE

STAY FREE

Notes on a Black Uprising

Edited by Christopher R. Rogers, Fajr Muhammad,

and the Paul Robeson House & Museum

Logo: Common Notions

Brooklyn, NY

Philadelphia, PA

commonnotions.org

How We Stay Free: Notes on a Black Uprising

© 2022 West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (editor)

© 2022 Christopher R. Rogers, Fajr Muhammad, and individual contributors

This edition © 2022 Common Notions

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

ISBN: 978-1-94217-350-2 | EBook ISBN: 978-1-94217-362-5

Library of Congress Number: 2021948798

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

www.commonnotions.org

[e-mail]

Discounted bulk quantities of our books are available for organizing, educational, or fundraising purposes. Please contact Common Notions at the address above for more information.

Cover design by Josh MacPhee / Antumbra Design

Layout design and typesetting by Morgan Buck / Antumbra Design Antumbra Design www.antumbradesign.org

The editors of this anthology, in solidarity with the community of contributors that made this project possible, offer this special collective dedication:

We honor those who have transitioned, some in 2020 but also before, from whom we have inherited the struggle.

Conrad Africa. Consuewella Africa. Delbert Africa. Delisha Africa. Doretha Africa. Life Africa. Lil Phil Africa. Merle Africa. Netta Africa. Nick Africa. Phil Africa. Raymond Africa. Rhonda Africa. Tomaso Africa. Tree Africa. Melody Ellen Beverly. Edward Collier. Charles E. Crews. Beryl Davis. Dominique Rem’mie Fells. Robert Forbes. Garrett Foster. Loretta Garcia. Kelly Girl. Dawoud Hakim. Norise Harris. Louise Elizabeth Jones. Gail Wendy Lowe. James T. Lowe Sr. Adrian Erik |McCray. LJ McFarland. Saboor Muhammad. Barry Perkins. Linda Richardson. Mario Riley. James Juju Scurlock. Frank Lloyd Stephens. Na Tanyá Daviná Stewart. Summer Taylor. Jacqueline Tindal. Walter Wallace Jr. Geneva Young. Paul and Eslanda Robeson.

We honor those who may be currently locked inside or standing trial, recognizing that our road to liberation is bound with their freedom.

Mumia Abu-Jamal. Lore Elizabeth Blumenthal. David Bobo. Matthew Early. Pete Guerra. Leaf. Nichol Lee. Russell Maroon Shoatz, Sr. Ant Smith. Kwame Teague. All political prisoners, until all prisons cease to exist.

We lift up the names and lives of our next generation, those newly entering this world, to whom we will pass the baton to continue the worthy work.

Sumiaya Abdur-Rasheed. Fuseina Dashini Abukari. Amara. Ayah. Journee Ayers. Kamila Skye Blackburn. Brielle. Kameron Brown. Keon Brown Jr. Coltrane. Compton. Emma. Evelyn. Aiden and Adeline Frey. Jamie. Jeremiah. Luca. Mathias. Mia. Avery Miller. Dahra Mshinda. Nafis, Elijah and Zameer Muhammad. Thelonious Palacio. Prince. Gary Richardson III. Mia, Emory, and Eli Rogers. Logan Serraty. Theo. Sean. Shiloh Sage Amaris Wilson. Zakiya. To all our Black children.

The How We Stay Free Project Team

This project would not be possible without the openness, willingness, and generosity of time of our contributors, and the editors who pledged to labor with us along this journey: Maya Arthur, Jasmine Combs, and Jared Michael Lowe. A grant from the Independence Media Foundation Community Voices Fund allowed us to develop this platform for community storytelling with the assistance of the literary arts nonprofit Blue Stoop. Thank you, Emma Eisenberg, for telling us to go for it. To our publisher Common Notions, we are incredibly grateful for your support, labor, and collaborative vision in nurturing this publication into something for which we will forever be proud. We offer this sincere acknowledgement as another reminder that without community, there is no liberation.

LEAD EDITORS

Fajr Muhammad

Christopher R. Rogers

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS

Jasmine Combs

Jared Michael Lowe

Maya Arthur

EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS

Emma Eisenberg

Sherry L. Howard

Vernoca L. Michael

Janice Sykes-Ross

WEB DESIGN

Brandi Goldsborough

Contents

About the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance / Paul Robeson House & Museum

Janice Sykes-Ross, Executive Director

Timeline of the Actions and Global Events of Summer 2020

Foreword

Yolanda Wisher

Introduction

Christopher R. Rogers and Fajr Muhammad

Paul Robeson’s Activist Spirit Permeates 2020 Protests

Sherry L. Howard and Vernoca L. Michael

Tincture

DuiJi Mshinda

The Practice of Being Radical

Jaz Riley

Housing for Everyone: The Fight for Housing Justice

The Philadelphia Housing Action

Feeding Our Neighbors and Ourselves: The Mutual Aid Work of Bunny Hop

J.A. Harris

Black Trans Lives Matter

Abdul-Aliy A. Muhammad

Rest for Oluwatoyin Salau

Christian Hayden

End the War on Black Philadelphia Now!: Crafting Demands with the Black Philly Radical Collective

Krystal Strong, YahNé Ndgo, Gabriel Bryant, and Flare of the Black Philly Radical Collective

Black Philly Radical Collective Artists and Photographers React and Reflect

Nilé Livingston, Corey Hariston, Koren Martin, Malkia Okech, Nick Massarelli, Matthew Early, Joe Piette

A Story of Resistance in Eight Objects: A Study of the Material Culture of the 2020 Uprising

Malkia Okech

One Drop Placebo

Ewuare Osayande

Hakim’s Bookstore: Preserving Lifelong Missions, Instilling Knowledge-of-Self

Tafari Diop Robertson with Yvonne Blake and Cheryl David

Goin Home Suite: Finding Hope, Wellness, and Freedom

Gabriel Bryant

Finding Freedom Inside the Cages: Interview with Robert Saleem Holbrook

Gabriel Bryant in conversation with Saleem Holbrook

Greatest Love of All: A Meditation on Loving and Losing Black Women while Maintaining Strength in the Movement

Jeannine Cook and Youth Conductors of Harriet’s Bookstore

Mobilizing the Digital Community

Rasheed Ajamu in conversation with Stephanie D. Keene and Dr. Nina Johnson

Students Show Up: The Formation of the Philadelphia Black Students Alliance (PBSA)

Philadelphia Black Students Alliance

I Know You Are Doing Your Best: Prayer for Philadelphia

Charlyn Griffith

Navigating Collective Grief: How Organizers Wrestle with Persistent Loss

Cassie Owens

Building a Legacy of Liberation in Black Families

Jared Michael Lowe

Untitled

Jasmine Combs

Afterword: Protect Life

Christopher R. Rogers in conversation with Mike Africa Jr.

Reflections: The Time Is Now

Paul Robeson

Appendix

Bibliography: Liberation Reading List

About the Contributor

About the Editors

About the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance / Paul Robeson House & Museum

Janice Sykes-Ross, Executive Director

The West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance was founded in 1984 by librarian Frances P. Aulston to stimulate community participation in the arts by cultivating an interest in, understanding of, and appreciation for the arts in the Greater Philadelphia region. Her friend and trailblazer, Vernoca L. Michael, carried on Fran’s remarkable legacy after her ancestral transition in 2015.

A year after our founding, the City of Philadelphia dropped a bomb on the MOVE headquarters in West Philadelphia that left eleven people dead. To help the city heal and restore community spirit, the Alliance—consisting of Fran and a hardy group of volunteers—assembled more than fifty organizations for a week-long arts festival. Titled Cultural Arts Marathon – Family Time, the event included music of all types, poetry, puppet shows, and storytelling.¹

The Alliance sought to increase its visibility and carry out its mission by buying the house at 4951 Walnut Street where Paul Leroy Robeson, Esq. lived the last ten years of his life with his sister, Marian Forsythe. Their Victorian home, built in 1911, became the Paul Robeson House & Museum, and each room chronicles a period in his life. It is a fitting legacy to a man who spoke out against injustice and oppression with his beautiful voice.

The Alliance’s work remains as relevant today as it was thirty-seven years ago. Art as a vehicle for engaging people and effecting social change ia a hallmark of Robeson’s activism.²

The Paul Robeson House & Museum is a place where different voices can be heard and where artists of all types are free to express themselves. Our Arts in the Parlor series mimics the times when Robeson sang his most famous songs in the parlor of 4951 Walnut accompanied by a pianist. Our expanded virtual programming allows us to connect with global audiences, continuing the tradition of cultivating multi-ethnic, transnational solidarity. Through our Artist in Residence program, select artists have an area inside the house to create and thrive. Our arts programs with local high schools draw students into the house to learn about Robeson’s unparalleled contributions.

As an artist I come to sing, but as a citizen, I will always speak for peace, and no one can silence me in this, Robeson said. Like our namesake, we will forever speak through the arts of our people, whether it’s prose, song, dance, visual arts, or interactive media. We have fulfilled our commitment to this great man through the financial and spiritual support of all the people who recognize and acknowledge him. The people who have walked the floors he walked, climbed the stairs he climbed, and looked wondrously on his accomplishments through the photos and memorabilia at the house have sustained us.

Robeson bequeathed to us the sacred responsibility to work on the side of freedom: To be free … to walk the good American earth as equal citizens, to live without fear, to enjoy the fruits of our toil, to give our children every opportunity in life—that dream which we have held so long in our hearts is today the destiny that we hold in our hands. We—and the world—will always be indebted to him.

1. Ken Montaigne, Cobbs Creek healing takes a cultural turn, The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 4, 1985, https://www.newspapers.com/image/174018348/?terms=west%20philadelphia%20cultural%20alliance&match=1.

2. Readers looking to learn more about the model of Paul Robeson’s activism should turn to Paul Robeson’s Activist Spirit Permeates 2020 Protests on page 7.

Timeline of the Actions and Global Events of Summer 2020

This compilation of events provides context for the moments documented in this collection. The editors see this timeline as inexhaustible: it cannot be made to capture all the significant events and actors that contributed to the fullness of movement activity in Philadelphia during 2020. We invite readers to help us make the timeline more dynamic and complete by visiting the project online at howwestayfree.com.

January

(Jan 26) A legendary basketball star with Greater Philadelphia roots, Kobe Bryant, his thirteen-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others die in a tragic helicopter crash in the hills of Calabasas, California.

(Jan 30) The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is declared a public health emergency of international concern. The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in North America is reported in Washington State.

February

(Feb 23) Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed, twenty-five-year-old Black man, is shot to death while jogging in a neighborhood outside Brunswick, Georgia, after being pursued by two white men in a pickup truck. Neither of his pursuers, a father and son named Gregory and Travis McMichael, were arrested or charged with a crime until May 2020. Arbery’s death became a national flashpoint when, two days before public outcry forced their arrest, a graphic video of the incident—filmed by a man who joined the McMicheals in pursuing Arbery—was posted online.

(Feb 28) The first COVID-19 related death is reported in the US—though earlier deaths will come to be known and reported later—inviting increased levels of public panic, diligence, and education around the impact of the respiratory virus. US President Donald Trump emphasizes to the press that given time, the virus will simply go away.

March

Grassroots, mutual-aid organizing increases scale and impact throughout Philadelphia by experimenting with tech-enabled platforms to accumulate and redistribute life-sustaining resources of direct funds, groceries, and sanitary items to communities in need.

(Mar 13) Twenty-six-year-old Breonna Taylor is shot and killed in her home by Louisville, Kentucky police officers. The incident occurred during a botched no-knock narcotics raid, when officers forced their way into her apartment in the early morning hours. Taylor was not the target of the raid, and the suspect police were searching for was not at Taylor’s home. Months later, as street-based protests reach a groundswell, Harriett’s Bookshop owner Jeannine Cook and Youth Conductors travel to Louisville to distribute political-education-centered texts in support of ongoing demands for justice.

(Mar 16) As global and national health and safety lockdowns begin, the School District of Philadelphia closes all its schools, swiftly turning toward virtual learning for all students. Universities and workplaces soon follow with work-from-home orders.

(Mar 30) Organizers of the #No215 Jail Coalition, Decarcerate PA, Philadelphia Community Bail Fund, Philadelphia Bail Fund, and Youth Arts Self-Empowerment Project (YASP) lead a Center City protest to #FreeOurPeople and #EndCashBail, arguing that conditions in Pennsylvania’s prisons and jails will exacerbate the public health crisis and leave many to die.

April

As global COVID-19 cases exceed one million, Dr. Ala Stanford launches the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium